DISCLAIMER: I've suffered, as most do, with dry hits, leaking and all sorts of wicking issues with RTA's. They're touchy and require consistency! With my guide below, I've developed an easily repeatable and effective way to wick your RTA for HIGH VG juices. I am a DIY'er at heart and regularly vape 85-90% VG blends. After watching SEVERAL videos, reading several guides and posting countless times for help with issues, this is what I've come up with over the past few weeks in my transition to RTA's from RDA's. My coils, modifications or style is NOT perfect... and that's what's GREAT about this technique. It doesn't require perfection in order to work beautifully. I'm not claiming this is original but this is what I've taken from others and adapted to work for my needs. I wanted to give back to the community that has helped me out immensely with getting off the stinkies and here it is --- a guide that took 3 hours lol. Feedback welcome!

First off, I start with a basic coil. 7-8 wrap 2mm ID 28g dual coil. I love airflow and circulation as I feel it intensifies flavor and vapor production. Position the coils over the airhole with a good amount of space underneath, outside and inside of the coil so air can flow everywhere freely.

Ok here is where the magic happens. Remember those bowl hair cuts back in the day? Use your the upper most deck as your guide. Place your scissors underneath the cotton and move them into the corner below deck so that it's touching ( _| ). Snip the cotton flush with edge. Start with a nice straight cut, perpendicular with the posts (picture #1). Then go around the entire deck and snip any extra cotton that protrudes past the top deck in any way. In other words, keep the scissors touching metal and rotate the atty as you cut it into shape.

The key here is not compressing the cotton. You left it nice and fluffy in the first few steps, and you want to leave it that way. Shape it with your scissors and then you have minimal tucking and pushing to do later.

The final and very important step!! Apply juice like a paint brush to your wick so it's nice and wet. Here are my key tips:

1) Keep cotton OUT of the juice channels, leaving some on top of it like a bottle cap.

2) Keep cotton AWAY from the airhole. Don't let it sag over into it.

3) Keep ALL cotton WITHIN the deck, allowing none to extend out beyond the posts. This will leave your wick perfectly in tact when you screw on the chamber.

*AVOID COMPRESSION* Because you gave it that stylish hair cut, it won't require much cramming to fit all the cotton in there.

Take your screwdriver. Use the edge of the coil and the outer posts as a guide to slightly push the cotton back in place (*I literally make contact with the side of the post and coil edge with my screwdriver, and lightly press downward*). You want the cotton to sits over the channels, and none left in the channel itself. If any is falling into them, push it back upwards.

Check the airhole and move any cotton tipping over into it.

Lastly --- Take a birdseye view and make sure the cotton is inside the deck and won't be affected whatsoever once the chamber is screwed into place.
Screw the chamber, tank, and top cap on, fill it up and boom. You're good to go. =]

I hope this guide was clear enough to understand and helps anyone in need of guidance such as I was.

I am a firm believer in less is more.... especially when wicking drippers. Air flow to all sides of a coil is clutch. I've applied it to RTAs in a technique that I'll share sometime this weekend if I find time. It doesnt involve much work, which I also find important. Who wants to meticulously pluck or thin out a wick each time you rewick... which is daily for me =).

I'd like to add a tiny tip, from a newbie builder to other newbie builders.

My RTA's tank must be empty before I can do any sort of coil or wick installation, because the whole thing comes apart in about 5 pieces.

If yours is like that, too, do *NOT* fill the tank after rewicking. Just add a small amount of juice and use the device for a bit to make sure its functioning properly.

I messed up with the new wick I put in this morning and its not letting the juice flow. Dry Hit City.

But, I put a nearly full tank on top of that bad craftsmanship and screwed myself. I can't just dump it all out to fix the issue because I am out of the house for the day and don't have rebuild supplies with me.

I'll wrestle through it by covering the airholes and sucking juice into the bottom before hitting it, but it will be a pain in the ass all day until I get home, get the tank empty, and can try again.

i had a goliath v2 and i couldnt figure that shit out. i tried more cotton. less cotton. trimming in angles. all that. still got either leaks, dry/burnt hits or flooding. traded it for a billow v2. much easier to work with.

This guide is great. I had advice from a fellow member, Bondo, on how to wick an orchid as he kindly sent me one from the USA with some juices. I need to rewick today, I have had the same coils and wick in for about 3 weeks so they don't taste the best, they have had too many juices through you can not taste the one you are using.

I will use this guide, and add a tiny bit of tail into the channel. I DO remember less is more in these tanks though, if I wicked all along the channel it would either leak like a Biatch, or dry hits, untill I realised with Bondos help I was using too much.

Great guide, I will let you know how it turns out as soon as the orchid is empty(around half a tank left, I will get rid of that quick).

It also allows me to use my SMOK RSBT2 when I get new glass for it, that stuff is the most fragile glass ever, fart on it and it will crack.

i had a goliath v2 and i couldnt figure that shit out. i tried more cotton. less cotton. trimming in angles. all that. still got either leaks, dry/burnt hits or flooding. traded it for a billow v2. much easier to work with.

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That's too bad about the Goliath. I just got the V2 a couple of weeks ago and after some frustration and a second attempt I manage to wick it right. No dry hits, no leaking, and can chain-vape it. I have a Triton, 2 versions of the Subtank Mini, Lemo v2 (and have an Orchid V6 clone on the way) and the Goliath is my favorite, as long as I can consistently wick it correctly... I at least know it's possible.

DISCLAIMER: I've suffered, as most do, with dry hits, leaking and all sorts of wicking issues with RTA's. They're touchy and require consistency! With my guide below, I've developed an easily repeatable and effective way to wick your RTA for HIGH VG juices. I am a DIY'er at heart and regularly vape 85-90% VG blends. After watching SEVERAL videos, reading several guides and posting countless times for help with issues, this is what I've come up with over the past few weeks in my transition to RTA's from RDA's. My coils, modifications or style is NOT perfect... and that's what's GREAT about this technique. It doesn't require perfection in order to work beautifully. I'm not claiming this is original but this is what I've taken from others and adapted to work for my needs. I wanted to give back to the community that has helped me out immensely with getting off the stinkies and here it is --- a guide that took 3 hours lol. Feedback welcome!

First off, I start with a basic coil. 7-8 wrap 2mm ID 28g dual coil. I love airflow and circulation as I feel it intensifies flavor and vapor production. Position the coils over the airhole with a good amount of space underneath, outside and inside of the coil so air can flow everywhere freely.

Ok here is where the magic happens. Remember those bowl hair cuts back in the day? Use your the upper most deck as your guide. Place your scissors underneath the cotton and move them into the corner below deck so that it's touching ( _| ). Snip the cotton flush with edge. Start with a nice straight cut, perpendicular with the posts (picture #1). Then go around the entire deck and snip any extra cotton that protrudes past the top deck in any way. In other words, keep the scissors touching metal and rotate the atty as you cut it into shape.

The key here is not compressing the cotton. You left it nice and fluffy in the first few steps, and you want to leave it that way. Shape it with your scissors and then you have minimal tucking and pushing to do later.

The final and very important step!! Apply juice like a paint brush to your wick so it's nice and wet. Here are my key tips:

1) Keep cotton OUT of the juice channels, leaving some on top of it like a bottle cap.

2) Keep cotton AWAY from the airhole. Don't let it sag over into it.

3) Keep ALL cotton WITHIN the deck, allowing none to extend out beyond the posts. This will leave your wick perfectly in tact when you screw on the chamber.

*AVOID COMPRESSION* Because you gave it that stylish hair cut, it won't require much cramming to fit all the cotton in there.

Take your screwdriver. Use the edge of the coil and the outer posts as a guide to slightly push the cotton back in place (*I literally make contact with the side of the post and coil edge with my screwdriver, and lightly press downward*). You want the cotton to sits over the channels, and none left in the channel itself. If any is falling into them, push it back upwards.

Check the airhole and move any cotton tipping over into it.

Lastly --- Take a birdseye view and make sure the cotton is inside the deck and won't be affected whatsoever once the chamber is screwed into place.
Screw the chamber, tank, and top cap on, fill it up and boom. You're good to go. =]

I hope this guide was clear enough to understand and helps anyone in need of guidance such as I was.

I got a tfv8 earlier this week and had a slight leaking problem, I'm new to building my own coils and wicking myself. The tank came with pre-made claptons, my first try on wicking I put quite a bit of cotton into the wicking channels and was a little worried at first I would get dry hits but it was the opposite, it actually would leak quite a bit when I first refilled it. So I wicked it again and STUFFED the channels pretty full with cotton and it actually worked great...no leaks, either when refilling or when it is sitting. So if u have this tank too and u are wicking it for the first time and think u used too much cotton in the channels....use MORE lol

Thanks Bryan Miller for awesome tutorial! I was having a lot of leaking and spit back problems with the stock coils in my Kanger TopTank Mini until one of the employee's at my local vape shop gave me an RBA and the leaking and spit back has pretty much gone away.

I got a tfv8 earlier this week and had a slight leaking problem, I'm new to building my own coils and wicking myself. The tank came with pre-made claptons, my first try on wicking I put quite a bit of cotton into the wicking channels and was a little worried at first I would get dry hits but it was the opposite, it actually would leak quite a bit when I first refilled it. So I wicked it again and STUFFED the channels pretty full with cotton and it actually worked great...no leaks, either when refilling or when it is sitting. So if u have this tank too and u are wicking it for the first time and think u used too much cotton in the channels....use MORE lol

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Good to know. Thanks for the heads up! I plan on buying one of the new SMOK GX-350 kits with the TFV8 so I now know what to look out for when re-wicking it.

biggest issue i see newbies have that causes dry hit is to much cotton. your cotton should not bunch up as you slide it into the coil it should slide easily into the coil. i use cotton bacon lightly rolled in my hands not twisted to where its about as thick as a #2 pencil maybe slightly less and still fluffy.

Was wondering if this tutorial would work with the limitless xl build deck? I was told to keep the cotton on the bottom of the juice wells and I haven't had much leaking but I do have no flavor. Not sure what type of claptons they are? Wick is cotton bacon v2.

I posted a separate topic before seeing this, how do you get it to pressurize so you can fill it without it leaking right out the top? I'm having that issue on my v5.

To get stubborn juice to flow, cover all the air holes, blow into the tip, this will force juice into the bottom, if you have a top filling RTA like the Kayfun. I have a Kayfun v4 with 70VG/30PG, and I often have to do this to get things going after I change the wick.